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June 24, 2001 Sunday. Off to church. On the way, I read over some more material on the town/city of Pipestone. It was the first permanent settlement in the county and was established in 1873. It is named for the soft red pipestone quarried here. The stone exists within a layer of Sioux quartzite, an extremely hard red stone used in many of the buildings here. On first glance I thought the buildings were brick. The stone buildings I’m accustomed to seeing are tan or gray. Seeing the older buildings all made of this red stone was a delightful. One of these buildings is Pipestone’s first school, which was built in 1873 and continued to operate as such until 1955. Today the building houses a Technical College and Senior Center. Pipestone has one of Minnesota’s largest historic districts with 20 buildings on the National Historic Register. In 1879 the first train arrived in Pipestone. This location later became a major railroad center with 4 railroad lines traveling through here. Now there is only one railroad left that travels through here. When we arrived at the church we had planned on attending we noticed no cars in their parking area. We were a little early so we pulled up on a side street to wait. Shortly after we parked, we watched a woman and a young man walk up to the church door. When they tried to open it they found it locked! They walked away, and we decided not to stay. Instead, we went to a park for some quiet time of our own. Later that afternoon, we all toured Pipestone National Monument together. Whoo! It was hot. The air-conditioned visitor center was a welcome relief. This quarry became a national monument in 1937. Native Americans are the only people allowed to continue to quarry the pipestone here. They come from all over the country to spend their summers quarrying and making ceremonial peace pipes from the soft red stone. Some of them demonstrate pipe making in the visitor center. The stone is about as hard as a fingernail (about 2.5 on the Moh scale of hardness). It exists as a thin layer (about 18 inches) under a harder layer (about 7.5 on the Moh scale) of Sioux quartzite. No power tools are used to get through the 10-15 feet of Sioux quartzite to get to the pipestone. And out of that 18-inch layer of pipestone, only about 2 to 4 inches are pure enough to be used for pipes. The rest is used for statues and jewelry, etc., which are sold at the gift shop in the visitor center. Jim Chellman bought the guide book to the Circle Tour walking path around the quarry sites and we followed him on the tour as he read to us. Very informative. One of the last stops on the tour was an active section of the quarry where live demonstrations are given, but not today. I was certainly glad I had a sun hat and that there was a stiff breeze. A hot breeze is better than no breeze when it’s over 95 degrees! Back at camp Scott & I cooled off in the pool then stretched out in the sun. Then we cooled off in the pool again and stretched out in the sun again. Once more in the pool and then back to the air-conditioned trailer for a great afternoon nap! Aah! Later, all of us went out to dinner to commemorate the end of the unofficial Wagon Wheels caravan. We tried to eat at the Old Calumet Inn, one of the gorgeous old Sioux Quartzite buildings in downtown Pipestone, but they are closed to the public on Sundays. So, plan B took us to a restaurant called Gannon’s instead. Great steak! Great friends! Great caravan! --Scott & Lise <>< S.L.SCHEUERMANN@WORLDNET.ATT.NET |